Microwave-Assisted Fabrication of Amphiphilic Nanoplate Surfactant for Offshore Oil Spill Mitigation

Oil spills are an environmental catastrophe. Crude oil spill offshore could kills sea creatures, contaminates fragile ecosystems and soil beaches, among other destruction. In today’s society, there is an immense need for efficient spill mitigation and crude oil leakage treatment. In this study, we are developing a two-dimensional amphiphilic nanoplate as the herding surfactant for retracting spilled crude oil. The crude oil slick area would decrease to small thick bulk because of the 2D nanoplate surfactant and it would be easier for next step recycling. We are utilizing microwave-assisted method to fabricate colloidal amphiphilic zirconium phosphate nanoplates as the oil herder. The amphiphilic characteristics of ZrP nanoplates, one side hydrophilic and the other side hydrophobic decrease the surface tension of the system make the oil herding process successfully. This procedure has great applications in oil spill treatment and unlocks a new way for precising to design nanoparticle surfactants.